


A New Journey

by inadaze22



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Co-workers, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Jealous Hermione Granger, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, POV Hermione Granger, Past Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, Pining, Post-Hogwarts, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29412636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inadaze22/pseuds/inadaze22
Summary: Feelings have no rhyme or reason, no timeline or order. They justare.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 21
Kudos: 179
Collections: Dramione Valentine Exchange





	A New Journey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kiwi05622](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwi05622/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [DramioneValentineExchange](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DramioneValentineExchange) collection. 



_  
  
Five years._

  
The journey is slow.

Separated by years of friendship, it starts after redemption.

Months of working side by side in Magical Law. Days of exploring different cities when they travel for work. Hours of comfortable silence. Minutes of fleeting eye contact and lingering looks.

Hermione doesn't remember when her heart shifts in Draco's direction.

Feelings have no rhyme or reason, no timeline or order. They just _are_.

And they descend on her in a rush, in one word uttered when Draco tries to get her attention to point out a passage in a book.

" _Hermione."_

* * *

_Four months_

  
She waits so long as the feelings grow.

Hermione agonises. She skims the recesses of her mind for clues that this won't end in unrequited heartbreak. To others, Draco is a complex puzzle, but Hermione's learned to read him. She gives him an earful when he deserves it, but understands the journey he's made from a boy to a man.

And yet, Draco isn't easy to comprehend. Hermione thinks she notices subtleties hidden within the subtext of his words. She thinks she sees drifting eyes and feels wandering hands that brush against her every now and then when they walk side by side.

But then she blinks and it's gone, like it never existed.

The sensation remains.

* * *

_Three weeks._

  
Avoidance and frustration battle for dominance.

Hermione watches the threads form and stews in silence. Tries to hike off the mounting anger on forest trails, searching for the peace she so desperately needs. Shuts her Floo and organises her closet like her emotions. Splashes paint across a canvas and tries to lose herself in books.

Nothing works. Astoria is still _there_.

Invading their shared space, she requests dinner with him. All smiles and pretty words, she asks Draco for the forgiveness she doesn't deserve.

Hermione isn't jealous by nature, but Astoria's dramatic return works Hermione into a negative state. Her anger burns bright, oxygenated by the audacity of the woman who hurt Draco two years prior.

The inferno grows with no place to go, but she finally feels brave enough to ask.

"How did your dinner go with Astoria?"

It's extinguished in an instant when he answers with two words.

" _It didn't."_

* * *

_Two days._

  
Decisions are sometimes impulsive, but the path to them is not.

The threat of Astoria dissolves into mist, but Draco changes.

He's more thoughtful. Quiet. He watches her when he thinks she's not looking.

His treatment oscillates between distant and too close. The unspoken words in his eyes make Hermione think. Ponder. The idea of stopping the pendulum of confusion and its ever-present swing by speaking her heart turns over in her mind.

The gravity of each separate outcome weighs on her.

It's hard wanting him, but it'll be harder if she finds out that he doesn't want her in return.

She struggles with it. Loses sleep over it.

And each time she says no, she'll keep this secret, something happens and Hermione's right back to fighting that instinct to reach for him and speak the words of affirmation that have been threatening to spill out.

In the end, even though Hermione's not a gambler, she has this undying need for proof that she's not alone, confirmation of feelings, validation that she's _more_.

" _I need to talk to you."_

* * *

_One hour._

  
Sixty minutes pass but the words don't come.

From their meeting spot at the top of a grassy cliff overlooking the ocean, they watch the sun sink beneath the horizon, leaving behind an expanse of sky painted with shades of beautiful colours. There's a breeze that should chill her, but Hermione's warm from both the charms and the flush of embarrassment from her uncharacteristic speechlessness. The air feels thick, brushing the little hairs on her arms and neck. Her heart pounds hard; she wonders if it will grow wings, wonders if the wind might carry it away.

Draco sits stoically next to her, his eyes lost to the horizon, but he's rigid. Has been since they arrived. Tension rolls off of him like the waves crashing against the side of the cliff below them.

The sound of the ocean lowers her anxiety and her courage rises to meet it.

Hermione reaches for him, twines their two hands into one.

Draco's eyes snap to hers, narrowing with each passing second of her bravery. She takes a chance by closing the distance between them, whispering a question against his lips.

"Could you love me?"

" _I do."_

* * *

_Zero seconds._  
  


Their lips touch.

A new journey begins.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta, Dreamsofdramione, who also made the graphic. And to my prompter for an excellent prompt that sang to my soul.
> 
> Prompt: _The moment you go from friend to lover._


End file.
